Paul Smith Confirms Kangaroo Skin Ban

For Immediate Release:
30 January 2020

Contact:

Sascha Camilli +44 (0) 20 7923 6244; [email protected]

PAUL SMITH CONFIRMS KANGAROO SKIN BAN
Luxury Brand Has Banned All Exotic Skins Following PETA Appeals

London – Following appeals from PETA, iconic British fashion label Paul Smith has announced a ban on exotic skins in all its future collections. The brand also affirmed the ban includes “K-leather”, stating that “our new policy, which has very recently been uploaded to our website… does also include [kangaroo] as well as exotic skins.”

“Behind every accessory made with kangaroo, python, or alligator skin is an animal who did not want to die,” says PETA Director of Corporate Projects Yvonne Taylor.“Paul Smith’s decision to ban exotic skins will spare remarkable animals immense suffering, and PETA calls on other luxury brands to follow its kind example.” 

Following graphic photos of charred kangaroos in Australia and reports that their habitats have been decimated by the recent bushfires, more and more people are demanding an end to that country’s government-sanctioned kangaroo slaughter, in which the animals are shot. Those who are injured but not killed – as well as orphaned joeys – are decapitated or hit sharply on the head to “destroy the brain”before their skins are torn off so the hides can be exported and made into accessories.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to wear” – has released several exposés of the exotic-skins industry. Alligators are kept in fetid water inside dank, dark sheds before their necks are hacked open and metal rods are shoved into their heads in an attempt to scramble their brains, often while they’re fully conscious. One-year-old ostriches are transported by lorry to abattoirs, where workers turn them upside down in a stunner, slit their throats, and pluck their feathers. And snakes are commonly nailed to trees before their bodies are cut open from one end to the other as they’re skinned alive.

By banning exotic skins, Paul Smith – which has 90 stores and 21 concessions around the world – joins Chanel, Victoria Beckham, and luxury department store Selfridges, whose exotic-skins ban comes into force this week.

For more information, please visit PETA.org.uk.

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